The BFI Doc Next Media Lab is a six month development scheme for 18 – 25 year olds interested in making a name for themselves in the world of documentary. With funding, mentoring, training and other support the filmmakers will be given a chance to experiment with what can be done within the loose confines of ‘documentary’.

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Hello and welcome to the BFI Doc Next Media Lab blog. Here you’ll find a little information about the lab and regular updates from the participants during the scheme.

The BFI Doc Next Media Lab is a development and bursary scheme for 21 – 25 year olds interested in making a name for themselves in the world of documentary. With funding, mentoring, training and other support the filmmakers will be given a chance to experiment with what can be done within the loose confines of ‘documentary’.

As you hopefully are aware, considering you’ve found your way to this blog post, for the last 8 months BFI Future Film has been running the Doc Next Media Lab. Now in its second year, the Media Lab is a talent development scheme for 21-25 year-olds run in collaboration with sister programmes by our Doc Next partners in Seville, Istanbul and Warsaw. We have been working with two film mentors to help 10 filmmakers push their boundaries and create new and innovative documentary pieces. Carry on below the line to find out more about the Lab and the films showcased…

So with the BFI London Film Festival buzz starting to wear off, we’ve been reflecting on our own festival successes with films from the BFI Doc Next Media Lab.

As you’re (hopefully) aware, we’ve got some brilliant films under our belt now (check some of them out over in our Vimeo Album, the others are still hitting a couple of festivals before they’ll make it there!), and rightfully they’ve been getting some attention in pretty big places. Alongside screenings we’ve arranged or collaborated on at IDFA, Open City Docs Fest and across our Hub networks in Istanbul, Seville and Warsaw, the films have also been finding their own independent successes, both on and offline!

So you heard it here first – the next round of the BFI’s Doc Next Media Lab is open for applications!

This year we once again have Kwame Lestrade (Franklyn Lane Productions) and Phillip Warnell (Head of BA (Hons) Filmmaking & MA Experimental Film, Kingston University) to support 10 young documentary makers through 8 months of mentoring, workshops and industry visits. These talented filmmakers will receive a £750 bursary to support the production of several new documentaries, as well as career advice, skills and technique workshops.

The programme is intended to help these young filmmakers find their place in the documentary industry, whilst engaging them in social issues and striving for an inclusive public opinion of Europe. If you’re interested in finding out more about the Labs or applying, head over to the Ideastap Brief and read on!

Well this is it for the 2012 Doc Next Media Lab, the scheme is over and a new round of ‘labbers’ will be selected sometime over the next month or so. The 2012 DNML consisted of just over six months of training, mentoring, festival visits and filmmaking opportunities and I’m sure I speak for all 8 of us when I say that it has been a whole lot of fun! Read on for news about the future and a recap on the past…

As you should hopefully know, the BFI Doc Next Media Lab is part of a much bigger programme of activities run by several different organisations across Europe called the Doc Next Network. This means that as well as all of the work you see cropping up on this blog, there’s a whole wealth of other activities taking place.

Below the image highlights is a run down of the Doc Next Network’s work in 2012 – quite the line up we reckon!